Millions of pounds of unexploded bombs and other military ordnance that were dumped decades ago in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as off the coasts of both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, could now pose serious threats to shipping lanes and the 4,000 oil and gas rigs in the Gulf, warns two Texas A&M University oceanographers. William Bryant and Neil Slowey, professors of oceanography who have more than 90 years of combined research experience in all of the Earth's oceans, along with fellow researcher Mike Kemp of Washington, D.C., say millions of pounds of bombs are scattered over the Gulf of Mexico and also off the coasts of at least 16 states, from New Jersey to Hawaii. Bryant says the discarded bombs are hardly a secret. "This has been well known for decades by many people in marine science and oceanography," he explains. "This subject has been very well documented through the years," Bryant explains. "My first thought when I saw the news reports of the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf two years ago were, 'Oh my gosh, I wonder if some of the bombs down there are to blame.'"

As anybody who has sailed, or motored about the ocean, knows, saltwater is an incredibly corrosive environment. I would doubt that little, if any, of the millions of pounds of ordinance could actually detonate after fifty years.

Bombs are never transported any distance to speak of with the fuses in them, as far as I know at least since before WW II. Most bombs are fused and armed just before being loaded on an aircraft and not a moment sooner.

Notice that the SacBee article originated as a press release. Is someone trying to stir up a grant or two via alarmism?

My only concern is to what extent a pile of 500 pound bombs will gradually be spread around by strong storms. Mustard gas is a whole issue itself, but IIRC it is denser than water so when its canister degrades and starts to leak, the gas will be in the form of pool of liquid on the bottom. However, should a net come in contact with it, it might be contaminated and harm those who subsequently handle it.

Maybe someone with sufficient NBC expertise can comment on this threat.

Look at the size of the guys foot.The bomb is longer than three feet.Do you know what we did with left over bombs after ww2? We sold them for scrap to the germans and then bought them back during the vietnam war.We dont waste bombs to the degree stated in the article.Got any pictures of the debris field on the bottom of the gulf?

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